Lover Uncloaked (Stealth Guardians #1) - By Unknown Page 0,6

the viability of the product you’re working on.”

Leila jumped up. “You can’t allow that. My research … it’s secret. No outsider can—”

“Mr. Zoltan isn’t an outsider. He practically owns this company.”

Disbelief welled up in her, making her knees wobble. “But you said he only owns 36% of the shares, that doesn’t mean he owns us.”

“In the corporate world that gives him sufficient power over us to force practically anything he wants. We don’t even know what other resources he has at his disposal. For all we know, he can buy another fifteen percent, giving him full control.”

Leila leaned over the desk. “Please, Mr. Patten, you have to stop this. I can’t have a stranger looking over my shoulder. This is sensitive work. If somebody gets hold of my formula, they can steal it. It’s not safe to have somebody in the lab who might—”

“I understand your feelings, Dr. Cruickshank, but I have no choice. My hands are tied. Your research belongs to this company. It’s not your property. If I tell you that you have to allow someone access to it, then you’ll do as I say,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “Do we understand each other?”

Leila pulled back, disappointment running in her veins. “I understand.” Her jaw tightened. “Is that all for tonight?”

He nodded, a tired look crossing his features. “Go home, Dr. Cruickshank. You’ll eventually see that things aren’t as bad as you might think.”

She turned without another word and walked back to her lab, holding back tears of frustration until the door latched behind her. Dropping into her chair, she covered her face with her hands and let the tears come.

This wasn’t fair.

She’d worked so long and hard for this, and now some rich shareholder with a medical degree would swoop in and nose around in her work. What if that wasn’t everything he wanted to do? What if he was intent on taking over the research and taking credit for it? She’d seen things like that happen before, where one researcher was booted out in the middle of the project and some newbie had taken over, claiming the credit for the ultimate result.

Or what would happen if he was incompetent and destroyed the progress she’d already made? If that happened, her parents would never get better.

She couldn’t allow this to happen. Nobody would ever find out enough about her research to be able to take over. This was her life’s work!

“You can’t take this away from me, Patten,” she mumbled, wiping the tears off her cheeks.

As she pushed back the chair, it scraped against the floor, the sound echoing in the empty lab. Her legs carried her to the wall safe. She pressed her thumb against the touchpad that activated the scanner. Then she heard a mechanism click. A beep accompanied by a green light told her that her authorization had been accepted.

Leila pulled the thick door open and peered into the dark interior. She had to do what needed to be done.

THREE

Aiden burst through the door of the compound. There was no need to open it. His body simply dematerialized as he passed through the solid material and rematerialized beyond in a process too fast for the human eye to analyze. All it would see was a man walking straight into a door or a wall, the process behind it remaining a mystery. It was a power unique to Stealth Guardians; no demons known to them had a similar skill.

He charged down the hallway. The massive building consisted of three stories above ground and two below. Its walls were thick, like those of an old English castle, build the way their ancestors had built their own strongholds. Their past was imprinted on the structure: ancient runes decorated the walls and floors, and charms to ward off evil hung over each door and window.

There were many Stealth Guardian compounds dotted all over the world, places where the brothers, and the few sisters, lived together. All compounds were protected by the collective power of the Stealth Guardians, their virta, and might as well have been invisible. An ancient hypnotic-like spell ensured that the buildings went unnoticed by humans.

Inside, no humans were allowed. Not even the charges of Stealth Guardians could be trusted to keep its location secret. There was always a chance that one of them would turn against them and eventually betray them to the demons.

Within the walls of the compound, Stealth Guardians could recharge their energy after each mission, energy they expended as they